Orioles Notes: Doi, Damon, Hoiles

The Orioles have signed Japanese lefty Yoshihiro Doi to a minor league contract, according to NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman, who passes along a report from Nikkan Sports. Doi, 35, became eligible for international free agency a year ago, but ended up sitting out the 2011 season due to visa issues.

You can hear admiration in Dan Duquette's voice when the O's GM discusses Johnny Damon, says Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. While Duquette didn't confirm to Cafardo that he's interested in signing Damon, a Friday report suggested Baltimore is eyeing the well-traveled veteran.

Former Orioles backstop Chris Hoiles tells Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com that he'd like a chance to get back into the organization in some capacity. Hoiles says he has reached out to team officials in the past and will continue to do so: "I feel like I have a lot to offer and I feel like I can help out these young kids with my knowledge and experience."

Comments

How does Damon not have any interest? I know he isn’t like he was several years ago with the Yankees or Red Sox, but he can still swing the bat. You would think at the very least a team would be interested in him as a bat off the bench. But not a single word?

I’m rather surprised he isn’t the full-time DH somewhere already too. Makes you wonder if he has a short list of teams that he has been shopping himself to. Notice he never gets linked to any AL teams from the AL West and hardly ever from the AL Central.

I loved Damon when he was on the Yankees. I really hope he plays just so he can get to his 3,000 hits. His defense is suspect, but putting him at DH or using him for some pop off the bench isn’t a problem. What about Texas? Cruz and Hamilton can’t stay healthy at all. He could fit in LF if they need him to. Great swing for that park.

I think that Damon is in the unenviable position of being such a defensive liability that he can only be a DH, and most teams aren’t looking for players witha .743 OPS to fill a full-time DH spot. The Orioles are rumored to be interested in everyone, because quite frankly they ought to be. If the team signs Damon to be the full-time DH, then that makes Reynolds the full time 1B, Davis the full time 3B, and Reimold the full time LF. I’m not sure if the front office is ready to resign themselves to that situation quite yet.

Hoiles is a very well liked member of the Orioles community, and I’d love to see him have a place in the organization. With four minor league affiliates in the state of Maryland, I’m quite sure that the team could create some position in which Hoiles could be an asset to the organization.

I don’t know, NB, he stayed healthy long enough to play 894 games. That’s third in Orioles history to Dempsey and Triandos. The Leary pitch you mentioned cost him about 60 games in 1992, but he still played 96 games that year. After that, he played 126, 99(in the strike year of ’94), 114, and 127 games. Not bad for a catcher. Even his last two years, he played 99 and 97 games, before leaving the majors at the age of 33 after the 1998 season. His knees did him in. Too bad he could stay and DH for a few more years, he could really hit. In 1998, his last season, he hit 15 HRs and had an OPS of 833. At least he didn’t embarrass himself.

And he is one of the few dead line gets who actually panned out. They got him from the Tigers for Fred Lynn in the Cannot Year of 1988.

Former Orioles backstop Chris Hoiles tells Roch Kubatko of MASNSports that he’d like a chance to get back into the organization in some capacity. Hoiles says he has reached out to team officials in the past and will continue to do so: “I feel like I have a lot to offer and I feel like I can help out these young kids with my knowledge and experience.”

The Problem is, who is Chris Hoiles going to teach? Matt Wieters? No, because Showalter hired Russell to do that. The other problem is Showalter is not going to get rid of him either, which is a shame because Russell is a disaster!

Even if Hoiles is hired to handle the minor league system, who would he teach? Michael Ohlman??? He’s a MacPhail pick. Caleb Joseph has no arm. If anything is to be done would be to get Landon Powell from the A’s, as a player coach. The bottom line is I just don’t see how Hoiles is a fit here.

Lastly, You can hear admiration in Dan Duquette’s voice when the O’s GM discusses Johnny Damon… there was a rumor last year that Damon was coming to Charm City and it was just a rumor and hopefully this is just propaganda just to get O’s fans thinking Duquette is actually doing something other than search the local scrap heaps for service parts.

The Baltimore Ham Fighters. Like the sound of that better. The O’s have been far too weak in international signing for years. Cal Ripken should just buy a good Japanese team and move them to Baltimore. Evict Angelos and just move the Japanese team into Camden Yards. Rename them the Baltimore Oriole Ham Fighters. They’d probably win alot more games, they’d get added Japanese TV revenue in a big way, and stadium attendance would increase with new Japanese fans. It would be great.

O’s have two Japanese players on the major league roster: Wada and Chen. I believe Chen was originally from Taiwan (although I could be wrong). Is this what passes for humor now? (I say that to both of you).